Red
by yllw-drgnfly
Summary: And she lives up to her name, dark as the springtime storm clouds which bring in the dreary rain. Soulmate AU. OC-Centric. SI-OC as Sakura's older sister.
1. PROLOGUE

_author's note: i have too many ideas and this one has been bugging me so i sort of had to get it out._

 **PROLOGUE**

Haru no Kou.

Spring Rainfall.

It sounds nice until you realize it's a name.

Haruno Kou.

Her hair was darker than her sister's and more vibrant than her father's. Her eyes were like her mother's in color, but like her mother's father's in shape. No one knew where the dark shade of her skin came from; it was opposite her mother's porcelain complexion and even a few shades darker than her father's sunkissed skintone.

Haruno Kou.

She held secrets like no other.

She protected her sister like a mother would her child.

She entered the Shinobi Academy at four and graduated at ten.

She saw more and knew more than anyone in the world would ever know.


	2. 1 ONE

I stare at my hands and I wonder.

I look towards my sister and I frown.

She is so young, so small and helpless and what can I do for her but this? She knows one of my hidden things and she begs me for a favor, for help, to make her happy.

I reach out for her and pull her to me, her head meeting with my chest as I hold her close. I know I'll do it, I know I'll give in, I know I'll sacrifice this for her.

I know I'll cut the threads.

And so I do.

I cut the red string which leads from my wrist to the bedroom window to the south side of the village to the Uchiha District and I cut the red string which leads from her wrist to the bedroom window to the east side of the village to the flower shop.

I tie my thread to the one leading to the Yamanaka and I tie her thread to the one leading to the Uchiha and I smile tightly to the too-small girl before me who stares at me, wide-eyed.

"Onee—"

"All done, Saku."

"But— You—"

"Yep. Me."

"He was your—"

"Not anymore."

I ruffle her hair and it makes her shoulders relax just a bit but she still looks at me as if I've committed a great sin for her and I suppose I have.


	3. 2 TWO

"Please, Haruno-san!"

I had made the mistake of telling my two teammates (but not our sensei) about my ability. Shiryo now sits before me on his knees, begging me to give him Yamanaka Ino.

I love my team; they are the brothers I could never have, both now and then.

So I chop off the string that ties me to Yamanaka and chop off the string that ties Shiryo to Inuzuka. I switch them and tie them and, when I nod to one of my closest companions, he beams at me.

"It's done? She'll love me?"

I swallow thickly, choking down words that I want to say but can't out of fear, and plaster on a convincing façade.

"Of course! Who wouldn't love you, you dork!"

We both laugh and he hugs me tight in joy and gratitude and I feel something split inside me but I brush it back because, truly, I'm already broken—

What's one more crack?


	4. 3 THREE

Most days lately, I am training for the upcoming Exams.

I use Shiryo as my favored sparring partner, but I often study in the Genin Jutsu Library with Enji when I have the time.

Anamaru-sensei shows me how to spin Genjutsu during close-quarters combat and I take to it like a fish in water and eventually move on to more advanced Genjutsu techniques that most Genin don't learn until months after their first Exam failure.

My routine is only interrupted by the occasional…"client".

To my dismay, I've become known in certain circles as "The Perfect Matchmaker". No one seems to understand how I do it and I know for a fact that none of them know of my ability, but—

"I am in love with Inuzuka Hana, Haruno-san. Please help me to win her heart!"

—they still think that I can somehow make the ones they admire love them.

I want to tell them that it's not that simple, that "soulmates" don't have to be in love, that I have the feeling that, when I cut these threads, I remove the ability for them to ever have the romantic love they desire to have with their new mate.

I want to tell them, but I am afraid.

So, I do what I do best and keep quiet about such things and grant their wishes.

I snip the thread binding this girl to some unknown soul and I snip the thread binding me to Inuzuka Hana and I retie them they way my client wants and I smile wide for them when they yelp in glee.

I am inundated with "thank you's" and even a hug or two before the slightly older girl leaves, probably dashing off to meet her new mate.

Meanwhile, I look down at the thread which hangs loose from my wrist.

The end of my thread is starting to fray.

I feel—hollow.


	5. 4 FOUR

_author's note: so sorry about the incredible delay!! life got crazy for a while and, honestly it still is, but i found time to write and so here's an update, yay!_

Haruno Kou, Chunin.

It's like a punch in the gut, some days.

I think of Saku and her upcoming exams and…

The Land of Waves event has already nearly killed me once, but this? I know I have to do…something.

I know it's impossible to convince her not to enter, so I don't bother. Instead, I sit her down and talk to her frankly.

"Saku, the Chunin Exams will be here in a few months. You should speed up your training, yeah?"

She nods eagerly and I breathe a sigh of relief.

I offer to help her out and she is just so excited that, for a moment, I forget that I know what awaits her in that deadly forest.

She grasps the Genjutsu I teach her as easily as I did when Anamaru-sensei taught me.

The physical side of things, not so much.

Perhaps she is just too young, I think as I throttle her into the ground again.

Or perhaps she just needs an old drunk blonde.


	6. 5 FIVE

The Uchiha approaches me one day when I'm trying to meditate in the Eleventh Training Field. He acts casual about it, like he was just walking by and saw me sitting there in the grass and randomly decided to speak to me.

Its quite funny, really.

But I don't laugh.

Instead, I …

… what is this?

There's a sharp twist in my stomach and my throat is closing and …

"Haruno-san," he greets me without really looking, nodding his head in begrudging politeness towards someone older and of higher rank than him.

I inhale through my mouth and the feeling vanishes but leaves my mouth dry like Suna.

"Y-Yes, Uchiha-san? What is it that I can do for you?"

I hope for a second that he misses the odd sound of my voice and the stutter at the start of my response, but no, his eyes sharpen in a way that says he noticed.

I clear my throat a little and give him a polite, albeit awkward, smile.


	7. 6 SIX

It is with great annoyance that I stand before one Uzumaki Naruto.

Honestly, I had know that he wouldn't be training too hard for the exams, but for him to be doing this in his spare time?!

"If you do not wish to become Naruto Sashimi, I would recommend that you set down that book at once."

I brandish a kunai for emphasis and the Icha Icha falls to the ground instantaneously.

"H-H-Haruno-san?!?!!" The boy sputters, wide-eyed and sweating nervously as he eyes my kunai.

"That book is not for children. Yes, you are a child. No, you may not have a peek. If you see one of those books in the hands of your sensei ever again, stab it with a kunai and burn it." I step closer to him to stress my seriousness, narrowing my eyes into a glare. "Are. We. Clear?"

His head bobs up and down repeatedly. Its so fast that I think his brain must be a smoothie by now.

I let him go with a jerk of my head and he runs off so fast that all I see is his dust trail.

A few moments later, I burst out into laughter in the middle of the street outside the bookshop.


	8. 7 SEVEN

It's one of those nights again.

Curled in the corner of my room between the bed and the wall, pillow pressed to my mouth and choking on my useless tears.

I've done this to myself, I know.

So many times I've tried to numb myself to it, but it comes back.

Always comes back.

Biting and clawing and aching so much, that pit that's opened inside my very soul.

People talk about soul mates, but they never talk about what that even means.

The person you're meant for is a literal piece of you.

A chunk of your very soul.

And when you cut the bond between the two of you, you're never really the same.

Especially when you do it.

Over.

And.

Over.

Again.


	9. 8 EIGHT

The Exams have begun.

I know that Saku will be okay for a little while, so I decide to distract myself from worry over the future by following my thread. Perhaps it is unwise to do so, but I feel somehow... unsettled by not knowing.

I start from home and follow the red string into the market, weaving around civilians and merchants as I try to discern which way to go. Such crowded places are so difficult to navigate since there are so many threads all tangled up into a giant mass of vibrant scarlet red.

Of course, I can tune out most of them, letting them fade out until I can just barely notice the outlines connecting person to person, but it is still so incredibly distracting that I take a couple of wrong turns before I slip out of the market square and into the outlying suburbs.

This is the area where most civilians live and where a handful of the out-of-town shinobi are staying. I figure it's better to put the foreigners with the civilians than sit them right up next to the Konoha shinobi; it probably saves a whole lot of money in property damage and keeps as much sensitive info safe as is possible with outsiders within our walls.

That aside, I continue to chase the thread, glancing up as I see it curve rightwards around a corner. My steps pause momentarily because that way lies the graveyard and, much further down the road, the Hyuuga compound. Is my match a Hyuuga or just someone visiting a lost loved one?

I stand at the corner and peer around the brick wall which lines half of the roadway, attempting to catch a glimpse of... Well, someone.

The street is empty.

I exhale slowly, unsure if it is from relief or from disappointment, then trudge on.


	10. 9 NINE

It turns out that my temporary (because I know it will be; it always is) soulmate is neither Hyuuga nor graveyard-goer.

She is a teacher, in fact, on her way home from visiting a student at the Hyuuga compound.

I discover this easily by pretending to mistake her for someone else and simply striking up a conversation from there. Perhaps the idea is somewhat unimaginative but it works well enough to learn the basics about this woman some five years my senior.

Her name is Mazui and her family is a tiny clan of metalworkers, hailing from Kumogakure. She was born here in Konoha and has never once seen the mountains of her supposed ancestral lands, but she wishes to. Her nails are chipped blue and she doesn't wear a bit of makeup and, though she is reserved at first, she smiles freely after only twenty minutes of talking with me.

As we part ways after I have walked with her along a winding, looping path back to the marketplace, something eases in my chest and I can breathe just a little bit easier.


	11. 10 TEN

I find myself at the entrance to the Academy the following day, feeling somewhat foolish. The anxiety of being away from Saku and of knowing of what she's probably going through right now has made me restless and I found myself thinking of Mazui and the easy way we talked yesterday.

When I got home last night and thought over our meeting, I was surprised at how simple it all was between us. Is it perhaps because I'd never gone out to purposefully meet with any of my previous (temporary, temporary) soulmates before now? Or maybe it is just Mazui's way, her personal aura or something?

I try not to think so hard on any of it now that I'm loitering by the beaten up old swing set outside the Academy's front yard. It's nearing two o'clock and there is a wild itch beneath my skin which calls my mind back to Saku again and again. I need the distraction which Mazui provided for me yesterday.

I wait impatiently and eventually the bell rings and, a couple of minutes later, children come pouring out of the building, screaming and laughing and running about. My heart calms imperceptibly and I make my way swiftly through the mob of hellions, pushing my way into the building. A glance down at my left wrist has me following the first hall and taking a right and then another right, going up the stairs and taking a sharp left to stand in front of the closed door of some random classroom I don't remember.

My throat constricts a little and I stare down at the place where my beaten and battered thread is tied to the fresh and nearly-glowing one that disappears through the wood of the sliding door. My nerves vibrate anxiously for a whole other reason, but I squash it down and knock.


	12. 11 ELEVEN

A couple of days ago, I asked Mazui out on something that might maybe be called a date.

For some reason, she agreed.

I meet with her fairly early in the afternoon at the library, a place we both realized we enjoy equally. We take an innocent trip inside and browse the fiction section, laughing a little and commenting on the plots outlined on the book jackets of some of the good novels. We briefly delve into the shinobi section and discuss more on some of our own combat styles; she tells me she is pretty good with a sword and we bond a little over our shared love of genjutsu.

When we both have small bags of literature in hand, she points us in our next direction; a half-hidden little noodle stand just outside of the Akasen. I have a bowl of traditional udon and she orders cold soba, laughing at the face I make at her for it.

Next, it's my turn to pick so I order her to follow me in the most intimidating voice I can muster; we both laugh at that one. I bring her to a small little clothing shop on the outskirts of the market district, fairly close to where a portion of the Naka River loops around close to the village walls.

We each try on clothes and even pick up a few things; I offer to buy her something, but she tells me her teaching salary is more than enough, thank you, and gives me a glare. I rush to apologize, but she still seems a little miffed as we leave.

I am frustrated during most of the rest of the date, even when she offers to let me just drop off the things I bought at her apartment before we go into one of the larger training grounds. We are both fairly tired at this point, so we just lay in the shade underneath a grouping of big trees.

It takes a little while, but I ease back into my own skin and let out a heavy sigh, nature's calm aura surrounding me. My arm jolts somewhat as something brushes against my palm and Mazui's hand slips into mine. She knows about my sister, about the stress I carry around during these exams, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised by her attempt to comfort me.

Yet, I am somehow surprised.

I turn my head to look at her, her body sprawled in the grass next to mine, and she is smiling; just barely but it is so sincere and warm that I almost think I feel my heart stutter.


End file.
